Title: The Advent of Mobile Financial Services in Agriculture
Author: Camilo Tellez
Source: Mobile Money for the Unbanked blog
Publisher: GSM Association
Date (published): 15/11/2011
Date (accessed): 17/11/2011
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
"As the global population continues to grow – it is expected to reach more than 9 billion by 2050. It will require a 70% increase in food production above current levels. Most of this increased yield will have to be achieved in less developed countries (LDCs), many of whose farmers operate on a small scale and are highly exposed to crop failure and adverse commodity price movements. This month, Vodafone, Accenture and Oxfam released a report on mAgriculture. The report titled “Connected Agriculture” assesses the potential benefits of new mobile data services such as mobile financial services, weather forecasts, and agriculture information and advice for smallholding farmers operating in marginal circumstances.
…
The financial and information opportunities at the base of the pyramid (BOP) in themselves hold significant untapped value for the private sector. The BOP has both intricate financial and information needs, which have the potential to be met through mobile money and information-based mobile services. Mobile Money can reduce the financial gap for farmers by giving them access to savings and insurance, which in itself reduces the impact of extreme weather and allows for greater investment in improving production.[1] Meanwhile, m-information services have the potential to open up significant markets opportunities, by relaying sales prices, GIS-based commodity demand information, as well as more basic yet essential information on agricultural best practices and reliable weather forecasts..."

Title: Mobile Money to Assist Flood Affectees – Potentials and Challenges
Author: Arsalan Mir
Source: TelecomPK
Date (published): 21/09/2011
Date (accessed): 21/09/2011
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
"Given the size of Pakistan’s displaced population, her damaged infrastructure, the tenuous security situation, and perceived levels of corruption within the government, it is worth assessing the potential of monetary aid via mobile money.

A mobile money platform already exists in Pakistan—Telenor’s easypaisa, which offers the functionality to send money from one side of the country to another. Could aid agencies distribute monetary aid via easypaisa? When we caught up recently with the Telenor Pakistan team, they told us that the answer is yes, but noted a few key challenges:

- KYC requirements: a number of displaced families have lost all their belongings, including identification, so how do you make sure payments are getting to the right people?

- Distribution footprint: what happens when there is no local agent to serve affected communities?

- Liquidity: Unless retailers are willing to accept electronic value for payment of goods, customers will want to cash-out their payments, so how do you supply agents in affected areas with cash?"

Title: Africa represents real mobile innovation
Author: Bontle Moeng
Source: IT News Africa
Date (published): 20/09/2011
Date (accessed): 21/09/2011
Type of information: article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
"The TM Forum Management World Africa, a global communications industry initiative that assists members to understand the complexity of running a service provider business commenced today at the Hilton Hotel, in Johannesburg, South Africa

Speaking at the two day conference, Nik Willetts, TM Forum Senior VP for Communications highlighted the challenges of service provider transformation in Africa.
Willetts says business and IT transformation are a crucial prerequisite for agility, growth and profitability.
During a Q&A session with ITNewsAfrica, Willetts provided vital information regarding Africa’s current mobile state and possible future opportunities.

Why is the African mobile market regarded as ‘the most exciting market in the world’?
Africa has the opportunity to capture markets that the more developed markets have already established. The opportunity to take a good share of the banking space, for example where many of the consumers that are being added now don’t have a bank account or experience in banking services – can have access to those services.
In Africa where some of those services are scares for many consumers means you can take them on a journey from a pre-financial world and a pre-banking world to one where they can embrace it."

Title: Are the Poor Stuck in Voice? Conditions for Adoption of More-Than-Voice Mobile Services
Authors: Ayesha Zainudeen, Dimuthu Ratnadiwakara
Pages: 15 pp.
ISBN: 1544-7529
e-ISBN: 1544-7537
Source: Information Technologies & International Development; Vol 7, Issue 3 - Mobile Telephony Special Issue, 45-59 pp.
Publisher: USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism
Date (published): 09/09/2011
Date (accessed): 13/09/2011
Type of information: Peer-reviewed article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
"Mobile phone access is widespread in Asia; voice connectivity has been achieved for the most part through intense competition, with prices being driven down to almost unsustainable levels. Against the backdrop of intense competition, new services and applications, such as price information alerts, news alerts, mobile money applications, and mobile Internet services, may provide new revenue sources, allowing operators to expand services. More important, from a development perspective, they also offer a way to get information and services with lower transaction costs to customers at the “bottom of the pyramid.” This article examines the use of such “more-than-voice” services among telecom users at the bottom of the pyramid in emerging Asia. Through a logistical regression model, it attempts to understand what factors can predict their use in order to inform operators on how they can better serve these markets, and to educate policymakers on how they can assist with policies that will favor greater access."

Title: Saving On The Mobile: Developing Innovative Financial Services to Suit Poor Users
Source: AppLab blog (Grameen Foundation)
Date (published): 11/08/2011
Date (accessed): 12/08/2011
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
"Grameen Foundation’s Sean Krepp and Dr. Olga Morawczynski recently published this paper on Saving on the Mobile in the World Economic Forum’s Mobile Financial Services Development Report 2011.

Savings on mobile money
A recent survey of over 2,000 Kenyan households found that 89% of respondents used M-PESA, a Kenyan mobile money (MM) application, “to save” (Suri and Jack, 2010). Dr. Morawczynski confirmed this finding after spending over 18 months studying the financial habits of resource poor M-PESA users in two locations: an urban slum called Kibera and village in Western Kenya called Bukura (Morawczynski, 2010). The study found that M-PESA was integrated into the financial portfolios and acted as a complement, rather than a substitute, to other mechanisms. This paper expands on these findings by disaggregating the term “savings” and focusing on behavior.

Four scenarios have been developed to explain how and why resource poor individuals use MM as a savings mechanism. These scenarios describe the frequency of transactions and the costs associated with each form of savings. A case study accompanies each scenario to explain the circumstances leading to the savings behavior.

Two MM applications are central to this analysis— M-PESA in Kenya and MobileMoney in Uganda. Product ideas are derived from analysis of practices. To “go beyond payments” and be relevant to poor users, mobile applications must be designed to fit into existing practices rather than trying to change or displace them."

Title: Mobile Financial Services Development Report 2011
Pages: 221 pp.
ISBN: 978-92-95044-80-7
Publisher: World Economic Forum
Date (published): 16/05/2011
Date (accessed): 12/08/2011
Type of information: research report
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTMl + pdf + zip)
Abstract:
"The Mobile Financial Services Development Report 2011 provides a comprehensive analysis of more than 100 variables across 20 countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia. Developed in conjunction with the Boston Consulting Group, the report measures the critical factors necessary to achieve meaningful scale of mobile financial services and to meet the needs of billions of individuals excluded from the formal economy.

Defining mobile financial services devel­opment in terms of the key drivers across the institu­tional, market and end-user environments that lead to adoption and scale, the aim of the Report is to build consensus by proposing a taxonomy and analytic structure for assessing the mobile finance landscape in addition to the provision of a comprehensive data set.

The report takes a wide-ranging view in assessing the factors that contribute to the long-term development of mobile financial services. Along with including mobile payments and transfers, vital financial services such as savings, credit, and insurance are also within the Report’s scope.

Measures of mobile financial services development are captured across seven pillars:

Regulatory proportionality
Consumer protection
Market competitiveness
Market catalysts
End-user empowerment and access
Distribution and agent network
Adoption and availability

The report highlights that the adoption of mobile financial services is currently confined to a few countries where access to financial services has been historically constrained and the scope of services limited to mobile money transfer. The findings also suggest that the adoption of financial services such as savings, credit and micro-insurance are nascent and that regulatory environments, market competitiveness and the financial literacy of end-users all need to be collaboratively addressed before meaningful scale can be achieved.

Countries such as Kenya and the Philippines are among the few countries covered by the report that have achieved adoption levels of more than 10% of their total adult population. A defining characteristic of these countries is a dense network of agents – retail access points that are capable of registering account holders and handling cash transactions. However, as these countries look to achieve scale beyond payments, focusing on factors such as government disbursements through the mobile platform, the competitiveness of their financial and telecom sectors, and better data collection to facilitate “test and learn” approaches will need to become a priority.

Several countries such as Brazil and India demonstrate relative strengths when compared to those countries that have currently achieved scale in mobile payments. The ability to leverage existing agent networks and consumer protection in Brazil may facilitate the development of more complex financial services through the mobile platform. The widespread availability of mobile phones within India, the degree of competition within its telecommunications sector and recent regulatory changes may drive dramatic improvements in adoption levels."

Title: Gartner: mobile payment market is growing slower than expected
Source: Gartner, Inc
Date (published): 21/07/2011
Date (accessed): 27/07/2011
Type of information: press release
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
"Worldwide mobile payment users will surpass 141.1 million in 2011, a 38.2 percent increase from 2010, when mobile payment users reached 102.1 million, according to Gartner, Inc. Worldwide mobile payment volume is forecast to total $86.1 billion, up 75.9 percent from 2010 volume of $48.9 billion.

Despite these strong growth projections, Gartner analysts said the mobile payment market is growing slower than expected.

“In developing markets, despite favorable conditions for mobile payment, growth is not as strong as was anticipated. Many service providers are yet to adapt their strategies to local requirements, and success models from Kenya and the Philippines are unlikely to be translated to other markets,” said Sandy Shen, research director at Gartner. While developing markets have favorable conditions for mobile payments, such as high penetration of mobile devices and low banking penetration, this is no guarantee of success, unless service providers adapt their strategies to local market requirements.”
...
Gartner expects Short Message Service (SMS) and Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) to remain the dominant access technologies in developing markets due to the constraints of mobile phones. Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) will remain the preferred mobile access technology in developed markets, where the mobile Internet is commonly available and activated on the phone. Mobile app downloads and mobile commerce are the main drivers of WAP payments, and WAP will account for almost 90 percent of all mobile transactions in North America and about 70 percent in Western Europe in 2011.

Money transfers and prepaid top-ups will drive transaction volumes in developing markets. These are seen as the "killer apps" in developing markets, where people value the convenience of sending money to relatives and topping up mobile accounts. This is most obvious in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, where these two services will account for 54 percent and 32 percent of all transactions in 2011."

Title: Switching on: Africa's vast new tech opportunity
Author: Pete Guest
Source: Wired UK
Date (published): 12/07/2011
Date (accessed): 13/07/2011
Type of information: article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
"In 2011, visitors to Africa looking for war, famine and pestilence have to dig a lot deeper than in the past. At Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, hardened missionaries have been replaced by gap-year students clustered around iPads, and on the streets the bad old days have given way to another holy trinity: Premier League football, Toyota Hiace minibuses and cellphones.

Africa's national economies have grown consistently over the last decade. Even in the depths of the financial crisis, GDP growth exceeded three percent: more than in any other region of the world. Improvements in security, Chinese investments and soaring commodity prices have all played a part in transforming the continent's prospects.

Beyond macroeconomic factors, though, technology is driving profound changes to economies and societies across the continent. The hundreds of millions of mobile handsets and billions of airtime minutes only go some way to describe the scope of entrepreneurship that underpins Africa's technological revolution. From mobile payments to telemedicine and advertising, there is a common pulse of innovation, driven by an irrepressible combination of aspiration and necessity. This is the new Africa."

Title: A Mobile Payment Trifecta in Kenya
Author: Erik Hersman
Source: WhiteAfrican (blog)
Date (published): 28/07/2010
Date (accessed): 03/08/2010
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
Kenya is quickly gaining a competitive advantage in the mobile payments space. Led by mobile operator giant Safaricom with their Mpesa product, the market locally sees huge value in mobile money transactions. Add to that a regulatory system that is relaxed enough for innovation to be encouraged, and you have a great space for interesting things to happen.

Title: Connect to the bottom of the pyramid. South Asian and African countries share notes on mobile services for socio-economic development

Author: M. Somasekhar
Source: The Hindu Business Line
Date (published): 10/05/2010
Date (accessed): 10/05/2010
Type of information: aricle
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
How much time do you think it takes a poor person in one of the least developed places in any South Asian country to reach a telephone — either fixed or mobile?

The answer is about five minutes. This facilitates chat and basic communication for people who fall under the category of bottom of the pyramid (BoP). At the other end of the spectrum are people who have access to broadband services, high-speed Internet connectivity and e-commerce on their mobile phone.

This is a typical scenario in many South Asian and African countries where telecom and the Internet promise to usher in dramatic changes in the quality of life of the people. The challenge is to come up with suitable applications to harness this power to help the poor people.

So, in addition to talking, can such technology help them transfer money, pay utility bills, get information on health/ farming, or book tickets and so on?

via http://lirneasia.net/